What?! The Gamemaster And The Top Player Are Dating?!

"Where are you taking me?" Li Ling asked 

Elsie smiled as she pulled him along, "You'll know when you get there." 

Li Ling followed the girl without asking any further questions. 

This level seemed to be a bit weird. 

The mission was to keep the last vampire alive, but it never specified the time. Till when were they supposed to keep him alive? Li Ling was currently alive so why hadn't they cleared the mission yet? 

What was the trigger to completing the mission and why was it so easy? 

As much as Li Ling had observed till now, there didn't seem to be any immediate threats to his life. 

The only way he'd end up dying would be if he were to come out as a vampire and alert the people. Li Ling had absolutely no desire of doing that so what other danger was there? 

Li Ling was also kidnapped along the way but that couldn't be considered a life-threatening danger since he had been saved by this girl who called herself a mage named Elsie.. 

The existence of this girl was also a bit questionable. If their mission was to keep the vampire alive, the level should be set up in a manner that makes it hard for Li Ling to stay alive and the kidnapping incident was a perfect chance to kill him so why did the level have such an NPC that was tasked to save him? 

Li Ling wasn't gonna stupidly believe that Alvi was nice enough to give them an advantage. She was a cruel bot that wouldn't blink before kicking you down from a cliff so there was no way Elsie was a character made to help them. Such NPCs did exist but for them to exist in this level where their mission was to stay alive? It was suspicious and there was no way Li Ling was going to blindly trust this girl. 

They arrived in front of a building made out of wood. It had hanging lanterns decorating it, and written on the signboard, in huge letters, were the words "Maple tavern." 

"Tavern?" 

The girl nodded her head enthusiastically as she spoke, "It has the best food around!" 

"..." Li Ling looked around and noticed that not many people were interested in going into this tavern. 

It was weird. 

Out of all the other shops and stalls, this place was the most vacant, as if everyone was avoiding it on purpose. 

Li Ling decided to go inside nonetheless since the girl was insisting so much. 

It wasn't like he could really taste the food here so what did he have to worry about even if the food wasn't great? 

The girl smiled even more brightly as she saw the man entering the tavern. 

"Poor kid." 

"He got tricked." 

"Better not stand around here." 

"Why would he follow a stranger? It's his fault." 

"Keep on walking." 

"What is that witch up to now?" 

Elsie snapped at the people who were whispering among themselves, "Better shut up if you don't want me to throw you into the dark woods!" She glared at them and they immediately ran away in fear. 

It seemed that the cheerful, happy girl could also intimidate people like this. 

.

.

.

Zhihao walked all the way back to the small wooden shed and turned it upside down but he still couldn't find Li Ling. 

He tried to ask Alvi for help but as expected, she was the last person who would want to help him. 

[It looks like you lost your precious vampire] 

[Why don't you just give up and admit defeat?] 

[You can try your luck on another level.] 

[Didn't you place a negative bet on yourself? Even if you lose, you'll still end up winning some T-points.] 

"..." Zhihao turned his head to look at the girl as he asked, "Do you know how much I bet?" 

[How much?]

"One T-point." 

[...]

[Look on the bright side, you'll get to take home 2 T-points.] 

Zhihao sighed as he stood up and decide to go back to the town. 

He didn't place a negative bet on himself because he wanted to lose and win some money. He did it simply because he wanted to know what the negative gambling bar was like, and it was just as expected. 

The positive gambling bar and the negative gambling bar were different from one another.

The positive gambling bar could help the betters buy items and send them over to Mastermo or lend him their own items if he were in need of it. If he didn't need it, the positive gambling bar was rather useless with a bunch of options that were all grey in color and couldn't be used, whereas, the negative gambling bar worked in an entirely different manner. 

It was more of an auction type of thing where you'll have to use more T-points to win the auction and ask Alvi to set up a negative scenario for the players. 

Zhihao already had a small theory in mind, although he didn't know exactly how the two were different, he could still guess that they were and this was the reason why he wanted to see for himself how the negative gambling bar looked. 

So why would he go and bet a huge amount on himself when he was sure that he wasn't going to lose nor did he want to lose? 

The positive gambling bar had a limit of T-points that you could bet while the negative gambling bar didn't have any such type of restriction. If it didn't have a maximum amount, there was also a chance that it wouldn't have a minimum amount so Zhihao placed the lowest bet possible and shockingly, he was right in thinking that there wasn't a minimum limit of T-points that you'd need to bet.

When Zhihao thought that there was no way for him to find Li Ling, there was a sudden message popping up on his screen and it was from Li Ling. 

Zhihao was dumbfounded for a minute as he realized he had almost forgotten about this thing. 

It was the team message board that could be accessed by all team members no matter how far away they were. 

This feature was never used because Zhihao and Li Ling were always together and never needed to depend on such a thing to communicate so it was only natural that Zhihao had forgotten all about it. 

That was careless of him but thank God Li Ling wasn't that careless. 

Careless... 

Zhihao read the message and didn't know if he was still supposed to praise the man by saying he wasn't careless. 

<I'm... Tied up. Some help...? Please?>

"..."

In such a short amount of time, Li Ling had already got himself in a situation where he was tied up and asking for Zhihao's help. Was this even possible or was that man just cursed with bad luck? 

<Where are you?> 

Zhihao sent him a message and in under a minute he got a response. 

<GPS> 

Zhihao used another option in the menu bar that was hardly ever used, called "GPS" that helped team members to know the location of other players. 

Once again, Zhihao had almost forgotten about this feature because of how hardly often he had used it. 

Li Ling and Zhihao were always together so there never arisen a need to use this function. 

Zhihao didn't know if he wanted to laugh or cry at this moment. 

The GPS function was turned on and according to it, Li Ling was in the town from where Zhihao had just come here.

"Let's go!" He didn't waste any further time as he made his way back to the town. 

[...]

[I'm tired of walking!] 

Alvi followed him, her feet dragging against the gravel as she continued to walk. 

Of course, Zhihao wouldn't feel any fatigue because this was a mere game for him, however, Alvi was a physical entity inside the game and so naturally, she could feel fatigue after walking so much. 

They had gone to the town and then back to the woodshed and now they were once again going back to the town. 

Was Zhihao really trying to torture her like this? 

There was no way he was unaware of her current condition, right? 

"Just deal with it. You wouldn't have to walk so much if you had just told me his location." 

[...]

[Didn't I give you a hint?!]

[You were too dumb to realize it!]

[Don't blame me!]

"Hint?" 

[You don't remember what I said when you asked his whereabouts?] 

"What you said? You said no." 

[No!]

[I said "What am I?! Your GPS?!"] 

[I was so clear!] 

[How can you not realize?!]

[GPS!]

"Ah! So that was a hint?" 

[...]

"I thought you were just being your usual savage self." 

[...] 

[I have a feeling that you have a bad perception of me.] 

"You're not wrong." 

Alvi suddenly wondered if it was allowed for the system to choke a player. Oh! How the tables have turned! It was always Zhihao who wanted to choke this system and now it was the other way around. 

This was certainly a funny case. 

"Are you tired?" 

[I can't even lift my legs anymore!]

"Then let's run." 

[...] 

Before Alvi could say anything in return, Zhihao had already sprinted away leaving behind a small ten-year-old looking girl who just wanted to take a break.